The Side Story Of Standard Carrier Shoukaku
by Tusjecht
Summary: In a mission to capture a Re-class battleship near Okinawa, Battle Group Lazarus inadvertently runs into an Abyssal fleet many times their size and baying for their blood. In a hasty tactical withdrawal, Admiral Seiji, their commander, must save his fleet and complete his mission, and meet his enemy face-to-face.


**The Side Story Of Standard Carrier _Shoukaku_**

 **The Battle Of Boxing Day**

.-.

"Abyssal ship sighted! It's a Re-class battleship!" Yukikaze called over comms. "Extreme range, heading 0-9-0! Orders, Admiral?"

Checking the multitude of charts and sketched courses, Admiral Seiji grabbed the comms and dialed the group's frequency. "Lazarus, the enemy has been sighted. It is still on course, and assuming we are out of detection range, it will circle the uninhabited island SO-4, and reach the far side about twenty minutes at half-speed. Go to battle stations, I repeat, go to battle stations."

Six shipgirls received and acknowledged the orders. After a full week of scouting and doing nothing, the destroyers had become impatient. Metal on metal rasped as Kagerō loaded her torpedo tubes and Shiranui donned her signature white gloves. Sitting up straight in their seats, Zuikaku and Shoukaku exchanged glances as they checked their longbows and coaxed their planes to make ready.

The group of four destroyers and two carriers sailed in a loose formation - Yukikaze in front and Amtsukaze at the rear, with Kagerō and Shiranui escorting Shoukaku and Zuikaku in the centre of formation. Normally, the two carriers would be sailing on their own, but today they were both on deck of a small, steel-grey ship, just a few metres longer than a recreational boat. If not for the battle-scarred armour plating at its waterline and cabin, or the scratched paint to which there were insufficient funds to repair, the "ship" could have been called a pleasure craft.

Although Battle Group Lazarus was no stranger to running escort, today they were assigned a new mission: search and destroy. The seas this side of Okinawa were mostly calm and far removed from the blockade, but brass had specifically ordered them here to get rid of the thorny Abyssal battleship here that was regularly disrupting a shipping route. Intelligence reports referred to it very simply as the "Re-class battleship," but as Seiji double-checked his numbers and fidgeted with his pen, the red dot representing the enemy's last known position had a single character written down next to it: "Rei."

Seiji could already hear the droning propaganda in his ears: "Name the enemy, a traitor you name yourself," and so on, but if the last few weeks of studies had taught him, their enemy was one that commanded her own respect. Patrol boats had been outright sunk and several shipments rerouted just to give this one little battleship a wide berth. Past experience with Re-class battleships had shown that they were more than capable of severely damaging, even sinking shipgirls sent to stop her.

It was only natural that if they were going to give this being the right of way, then she had earned her name no matter how strong their grudges againt her might be. Of course, if they could sink her today, then there would be no need to deal with this naming business.

"Akashi, mines check."

Mines were not part of the standard complement the Kagerō-class destroyers were outfitted with, but not their carrier ship, the blandly named Unit One. It was the reason Battle Group Lazarus could operate at sea for weeks and be resupplied, rearmed, and rest at night - and at the centre of it all was Repair Ship Akashi, juggling the impossible tasks of repairing, resupplying, and fighting alongside six shipgirls at sea. Though she might move about freely on Unit One, she was always ready to go - and she had for the last three nights laid a network of sea mines under the cover of darkness. Akashi was pulling lots of extra work, and the darkening circles under her eyes served to underline the fact.

"Mines are good to go, Admiral!" she said.

"Yukikaze reports that Rei is continuing on her course!" the comms crackled. "I can feel the kiss of the Goddess of Fortune!"

"Steady, Yukikaze, steady," Seiji said. "Shoukaku. Would you please launch a reconnaissance fairy?"

"Understood, Admiral!" Drawing an arrow and notching it, Shoukaku gracefully launched a sky-blue plane at a low angle. Within seconds, Seiji watched a screen as information from the recon fairy streamed back to Unit One, decrypted swiftly, and resolved itself into meaningful data and numbers.

Everything indicated that Rei was completely unaware of their presence. Out of detection range, out of weapons range, and certainly no other Abyssal ships had been sighted, or Kagerō and Shiranui would have alerted him. Even as Seiji stared at the blinking green dot that indicated Rei's heading and speed, he could not shake off the feelings of unease.

"Orders, Admiral?" Zuikaku asked. Seiji glanced at the sister shipgirls on deck, at Akashi ordering one of the engineers to replace a radio set, and back at the comms set, where four other shipgirls were ready and waiting to be unleashed upon their enemy. But his gut feelings said otherwise...

Their enemy was in the perfect position to spring their trap. Their morale was still high. All preparations had been done. Seiji had to weigh their chances of success against never getting an opportunity this good. In the end, his choice was...

He picked up the comms set and clicked the button. "Battle Group Lazarus," he said slowly and deliberately, "Commence the attack. I repeat, commence the attack. All ships three-quarters speed bearing 0-4-5, towards the near side of uninhabited island SO-4. As soon as the enemy ship is out of visual range, arm the mines, Akashi."

"Yes sir!" Seven shipgirls answered together as one.

The five ships in formation accelerated, each shipgirl keeping a low profile in the water by bending their knees. The weight of seventy-two torpedoes, two squadrons of bombers and fighters, and food and fuel for seven shipgirls made Unit One sit low in the water as well, but her profile risked detection by Abyssal submarine forces. They had to do this quickly and get out, because the longer they stayed, the greater a target Unit One made herself - and as far as their antisubmarine measures went, they had more luck throwing rocks into the water. Seiji did not want to look for fights he was not prepared for.

Bit by bit, the distinctive profile of the Re-class battleship disappeared past the treeline of island SO-4. "Lazarus, take positions and hold steady. Currents are coming from behind us, so keep your engines on and don't run aground. Akashi, prime mine launchers One through Six and give me control."

"Priming," Akashi muttered as she punched a series of buttons on console she had built. "Admiral has control." A red knob lit up in front of Seiji.

"And now, we wait." According to his observations, Rei would take another 2 more minutes before she rounded the island and would be heading straight into the field.

The hot sun beat down on the group, and everyone was sweating soon enough, but with the enemy nearby, not even the loud-mouthed Amatsukaze made a complaint. There was too much risk that they might be overheard, or their comms could be intercepted. Two minutes quickly elapsed, but the Abyssal battleship still did not appear.

Seiji chewed on his lip and struggled to contain the tremor in his hand. The roles did not feel like they had completely reversed - what if they _had_ been detected, if the Re-class battleship was presently laying her own trap? Could he live with the decisions he made today with the lives of seven shipgirls and five crew members in his hands?

The comms crackled to life, making Seiji flinch. "Yukikaze reports! The enemy has been sighted!" she whispered. "About damn time," Seiji said. "Zuikaku! Launch your bomber squadron!"

Already notching an arrow and drawing her Japanese bow, Zuikaku struck an imposing figure as she launched the first of seven torpedo bombers. "Squadron launched!" she reported.

"All ships, three-quarters speed, bearing 1-3-5! Load torpedoes and AP rounds. Force her into the minefield! Adopt Arrowhead formation!" Seiji ordered.

Unit One lagged behind as the four destroyers accelerated into a wide 'V' shape, creating waves that crashed against the hull of Seiji's dimunitive ship. In the distance, the blob that was their quarry began to grow larger. The muted _pop pop pop_ sounds of anti-aircraft fire was plain to everyone on deck.

"Admiral, is it my turn yet? The enemy is within torpedo range!" Kagerou asked. Seiji hesitated. At mid- to extreme range, the Rei-class battleship would certainly catch a few torpedoes - but his greater concern was whether it would drive the ship to a course heading out of the field. The arrangement of the mines was not random, but concentrated a little more in the center, where he was hoping that it would cross in approximately thirty seconds. "Negative, Kagerou, Shiranui," he said, "Hold your fire."

Seiji flipped up the clear plastic cover and the red knob blinked once. He eyed the readout from Shoukaku's recon fairy - though the enemy battleship had changed her course by 3 degrees, it was still about to pass into the eye of the unborn storm; the dot blinked once, twice, thrice... And it was in position. "Here we go," he muttered coolly, and twisted the knob. It made a satisfying 'click' as it turned from red to green, and-

 **BOOM!** The core cluster of mines detonated, vaporising tonnes of water beneath the hapless enemy ship, and turned calm waters into a frothy, churning, furious maelstrom mixed with still-hot gasses. The Abyssal ship briefly disappeared below from radar, physics dictating that it sink in the low-density waters. Then four torpedoes dropped by Zuikaku's squadron, armed with proximity fuses, found their marks and detonated too, throwing up a beautiful geyser of steam, smoke, and fire from secondary explosions. As Lazarus drew nearer and more detail could be made out, the flames were tinged blue - the telltale sign of a collapsing Abyssal ship's shields and damage to their armaments. Shields that made them nigh-impervious to bullets, shells, and flames, but were downed by shipgirl-to-shipgirl weaponry in several hits.

As the destroyers of Battle Group Lazarus encircled their foe and Unit One cut power to its engines, Seiji methodically cracked his knuckles to hide the tremors in them. If they could pull this off, history was going to be made for sure! A live Abyssal ship taken into custody, and they could learn more about their foe!

The Re-class battleship was now clearly visible. Knee-deep in the water and emitting copious amounts of smoke from her damaged engines, she stared daggers at her captors and the approaching Unit One. Dents and scratches in her armour and clothes, as well as the telltale waft of smoke from the DD's guns, hinted at a short and decisive shootout. Shiranui in particular looked like she would freeze the battleship out of force of will alone. Walking up to the front of Unit One as it slowed to a stop, Seiji considered the sight before him, and wondered what exactly was he supposed to say. Stalling for time, he glanced at Amatsukaze and Shiranui: "Unload your APs and load all your guns with high explosive. Use of deadly force has been authorised." Technically, it was dangerous to him as well, but the HEs would probably sink the shield-less Abyssal shipgirl faster than Unit One.

"Enemy of humanity," he said, "You are to be taken in as a prisoner of war. Disarm your remaining equipment peacefully and we will not harm you further. Refuse to comply, however, and we will be bringing whatever's left of you."

" **Fools.** " The Re-class battleship growled. " **You are but a contemptible destroyer of the puddles you call your 'seas.' You are so unwise to attack us directly.** "

"And you fail to take your current situation into account," Seiji said. "You are damaged, outnumbered, and overpowered. The only options you have are the ones we are graciously giving you. Amatsukaze, Yukikaze - take her onboard. Akashi, the restraint, please."

"Rei's" eyes flared blue and she hissed as the two destroyers moved closer and grabbed her arms, dragging her towards the built-in stairs of Unit One. Akashi brought out a heavy iron collar with a small suite of electronics on it. A restraining device, she called it, that would effectively disable any shipgirl that it was placed on. As she handed Seiji the collar, Rei's eyes grew wide with recognition - then she burst into laughter.

Puzzled, Amatsukaze rapped their captive sharply with her gun barrel. "Oi. You find this funny? How about two shells in that face of yours?"

" **No, no, it's just...** " she replied, " **How ironic. Coincidental. Did you ever hear the tragedy of... Never mind.** "

Choosing to ignore its peculiar remarks, Seiji closed the collar around the captured shipgirl's neck. A magnetic clamp activated and it locked itself securely. "Right then," he said, "Escort the prisoner to the brig in the meantime, and-"

"Admiral!" Shoukaku cried, "Enemy aircraft on radar and closing fast! They're bombers! Recon fairy reports a massive fleet heading for us too!"

Seiji's blood ran cold. "Get moving!" he barked at a crew member. "Amatsukaze! Belay that, guard the prisoner on deck! Lazarus, _move!_ "

Alarms screeched as Unit One's engines rumbled to life. The fearsome drone of Abyssal bombers were almost upon them as Shiranui and Kagerou kicked up geysers, racing away from Unit One to spread themselves over a larger area. Seiji turned to face the three other shipgirls on deck. "You three, get into the water. We stand a better chance spread out than huddled together!"

They needed no telling twice. Shoukaku and Zuikaku hurried down the wet stairs - a tiny flight of steps that led from deck to the waterline - while Yukikaze opted to simply hop over the low guardrail and dive directly into the sea. The five shipgirls scattered just as Akashi took control of comms:

"The first wave of bombers are about to hit! All hands brace!" she screamed.

Seiji dived for the cover of the cabin, scraping his chin on the hard floor. He raised his hands to cover his neck-

 _SPLASH splash splash BOOM!_ The entire ship shuddered as a bomb hit, burrowed belowdecks, and detonated. Of course they'd be targeted, Seiji cursed inwardly. They were the easiest target by far to hit compared to five fleeing shipgirls on the water, it was a miracle that more bombs hadn't hit. "Damage report!" he shouted, and coughed as he inhaled acrid smoke. A door from the decks below opened and a man stumbled out, frantically smothering his smouldering overalls. "There's a fire, Admiral!" he reported, "Main magazine is intact, but not for much longer!"

"Get the extinguishers moving now! Do not let the fire spread!" Seiji shouted over the wailing fire alarm. "Amatsukaze! Status- oh."

Said destroyer was on the deck, fainted from the shock of the bomb's impact mere metres away from her. Her chest rose and fell, so at least she was not too badly damaged. But nearby, the captive Rei was gloating at the scenes of destruction, her eyes glowing with suppressed mirth.

" **How does it feel?** " she rasped, her voice carrying over the sounds of antiaircraft fire and a wave of fighters launched by Shoukaku. " **Come on, human, put up a little fight! Such a bitter struggle. Your end is determinate... And it is carrying a gun. Lots of guns.** "

The Re-class battleship looked to the left, and following her line of sight, Seiji felt his heart drop into his stomach. In the distance, the blue-and-black dots of an Abyssal fleet was closing in. Trails of sea foam led from behind the island, on the opposite side of where they had been hiding just a awhile earlier. So he *had* been correct, to his bitter disappointment - the Abyssals had laid their own trap by springing his wide open.

"This.. This is not over!" he gritted his teeth, "We will complete our mission by all means necessary! Some losses are acceptable," he tightened his grip on the unconscious Amatsukaze. But his voice sounded hollow and the Abyssal vessel knew it. She laughed, and it sounded human - if recorded on ancient magnetic tape, played backwards, and with horrible feedback. She laughed and leered at Admiral Seiji with equal parts hate and arrogance.

" **The Code is not for the likes of you,** " she said cryptically again. " **Your destruction is Its will and we are Its instruments. Your losses will be final, your losses will be- _urk_** "

*Twang!* A bow was strung and released next to him, the arrow flew straight and true, and buried itself into the enemy's chest, right where a human heart would be. Flushed red in anger, Shoukaku's battle dress was still dripping seawater as she sheathed her bow and turned to Seiji: "Admiral, are you alright?" she asked.

"I'm alright," Seiji snapped back to reality, and grunted as he lifted Amatsukaze. "Can't leave anyone exposed with all the bombers around. Is that all your fighters in the air?"

Shoukaku nodded. "Yes, Admiral. Zuikaku launched hers as well and is collecting her own bombers. But Admiral, the enemy fleet... They're coming fast!"

"Admiral!" The coxswain of Unit One approached. "The ship is beginning to flood. The combined weight of four shipgirls will make it worse. We can take the injured, but..." he glanced at Shoukaku, and back at Seiji.

"I understand," Seiji said, raising a hand to cut off Shoukaku before she could reply. "But we need you to do your best. We must bring back the captured enemy at all costs. I'm counting on you!" The coxswain's brow twitched, but an enemy plane chose to make a bombing run at that very instant. "Incoming!" Akashi shrieked, prompting both men to duck.

Shoukaku, however, remained calm and drew her bow. "I will protect the fleet," she muttered under her breath. As the drone of the bomber grew louder, she notched a single light arrow, specifically to take down aircraft, drew her bow to its maximum draw- and fired. The resulting _bang!_ was proof of the skill and prowess she had honed for years in training. Bits of shattered aircraft peppered the deck and dinged off her armour, but she had saved them.

For now.

.-.

Twenty-seven Abyssal ships of the First Chaotic Fleet cruised at full speed in hot pursuit of the human battle group. Composed of two carriers, seven battleships, five submarines, nine destroyers and four cruisers, the fleet was en route to rendezvous with their flagship, Rei-of-Blue-Steel. Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary until she sent the carrier Ama-of-Crashing-Waves a message, so rushed that it had to be drafted and sent in a hurry. Still, 'UNDER ATTK HUMAN SHIPS SEND BOMBRS' left nothing open to interpretation, and with that, Ama launched her three bomber squadrons and lazily passed on attack vectors.

"Humans, we smell them, we sees them," the Abyssal tactical net crawled with messages like these. Snorting at their show of bloodlust, Ama glanced at the flow of data from her own reconnaissance drone and uploaded an announcement to the fleet's tactical net.

"FIRST FLEET ALL HANDS ADV TO ENEMY POSITION," she dictated to her tact-net module, "BATTLESHIP FIRE SUPPORT; CRUISERS FLANK; DESTROYERS RESCUEMISSION. RETRIEVE REI-OF-BLUE-STEEL." She typed out their commander's name in full to underline the importance of their suicidal role. Though she heard some grunts and curses of dissent, Ama's word was mostly obeyed and the ships maxed their engine output together, churning the sea and making choppy waves in their wake. Guns clanked as the battleships loaded their massive 16-inch guns, elevated, and fired at the distant scatter of blobs. This would be a quick battle.

.-.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Kagerō cried out as shells rained down all around her. Seawater splashed and hissed as it made contact with her guns, still steaming after firing the last of her AA shells. Kagerō twirled and danced, skipping over the roiling waters, as she struggled to maintain her overall course at best speed. Still more bombers were coming to harass her, but the aircraft from Shoukaku and Zuikaku were doing very good jobs at distracting them - her only damage taken so far was debris when one bomber had blown up right over her head, the spray of shrapnel threatening to put her radio out of commission. Thankfully, that hadn't happened yet.

"Where are we going, commander?" she asked over comms, squinting just as another shell landed nearby and sprayed water in every direction. "Are we retreating? We cannot possibly fight a fleet that large!"

"No, we can't," Seiji said grimly, "Not on our own. Head for head, they have the numerical superiority." Seiji, massaging his sore arm, glanced at the charts with the locations of the mines. "But we still have a lot of tools at our disposal."

Shoukaku's recon fairy painted a dismal situation, that much was obvious. Four vessels were breaking off from the main group to flank from both sides, nine small ships, presumably destroyers, were rushing straight for them, and his courses were limited by the constant need to evade shells from the main group, which was gaining on them. Sooner or later, they would make a mistake and the enemy will kill them.

Seiji wasn't technically lying though, when he said that they had options. It was just that they only had one option remaining: the unexploded mines at the edge of the minefield. Their present course would take the battle group right to the end - still the wrong way if they were returning to base, but they did not have any other options. All the cover was behind the Abyssal fleet.

"Akashi, give me control of the remaining mines!" Seiji said. Unit One was a mess of activity: between the three men struggling to patch the holes, bail water, and run evasive maneuvers, Akashi was busy coaxing every last bit of power out of their engines. "Here you go!" she cried, and tossed her equipment bag at him. Catching it, Seiji stumbled and groaned, but he quickly pulled out the mine's control system, hastily wired to a radio set. Fifty lights glittered red, blue, and green with three buttons on the side labelled 'ARM', 'TRIGGER', and 'REMOTE.' Crude, but effective. Poking at the buttons, Seiji armed the remaining mines and checked Shoukaku's recon fairy. It was low on fuel and attempting to circle back, but it confirmed that the oncoming Abyssal fleet would enter the remaining unexploded mines in a few more minutes.

A bomb landed too close to Unit One, detonated, and knocked everyone to the deck with the resulting explosion. Feeling his sore lips and tasting iron, Seiji spat to clear his mouth and grabbed the fallen controls. Several smaller screens were cracked and no longer functioning - soon, he would be entirely reliant on his shipgirls for information.

Further away, one of the bombs Kagerō was dodging missed her, but exploded anyway and she felt shrapnel smack her feet mid-jump. Her foot turned at an unnatural angle and she fell, feeling a sickening crack and an immediate loss of propulsion. "Admiral!" she screamed, but her voice was cut off by seawater and only bubbles escaped her mouth. Surfacing, the sea was tossed more ways than a salad as bombers and torpedo fighters focused their attention on her. She surfaced, struggling to stand, and keyed the battle group's channel.

"Kagerō requesting urgent assistance!" the comms in Unit One crackled to life, "My right ankle is broken; out of anti-aircraft ammo, I cannot hold the course! Requesting urgent assistance!"

"Yukikaze!" Seiji hit the comms, "Assist Kagerō and tow her to safety. Bring her to Unit One!" Not waiting to hear her reply, Seiji jogged over to where Amatsukaze was slumped against the wall. "Wake up, Amatsukaze, get up!" he shook her shoulder. "We need you!" On deck, Shoukaku fired her antiaircraft guns, trying her best to dissuade incoming bombs and fighters, but they danced out of range of her guns.

Blinking her eyes, Amatsukaze stirred and rubbed her aching ears. Seiji dragged her up on her feet. "Can you stand? he asked. She nodded, glanced at the Re-class battleship tied to the deck, and cocked her head as though remembering what had happened. "Oh- Ah! Admiral! I'm sorry!" she exclaimed.

"Just launch and get ready for combat," Seiji growled. "The enemy is upon us!" He practically pushed her towards the wet stairs - on the other side of Unit One, a coughing and spluttering Kagerō was ushered up by Yukikaze. Both of them were soaked, oil-splattered, and ash dotted their faces, but Yukikaze did not stop moving. "Yukikaze has recovered Kagerō!" she proudly reported.

"That's fine, then. Return and prepare! Shoukaku, you too," Seiji added, "Get in the water. We're about to fight, and if I'm not mistaken," he glanced at the flickering digital clock on the wall, "Zuikaku's bombers are about to run out of fuel. Go and assist her!"

Both shipgirls looked at Seiji. Yukikaze hopped back into the sea with a smile, but Shoukaku shared a concerned glance with Seiji. "Admiral, will you be fine by yourself?" she said.

"I'm fine," Seiji said. "Don't worry about me so much. Go!" Shoukaku turned and hurried down the wet stairs.

On the main screen, the leading edge of the mines now divided the Abyssal fleet into their main group and the thirteen ships accelerating towards them. The smaller group too, was right in the middle of about six or seven mines.

There was no need to think. Seiji placed his thumb on 'TRIGGER' and mashed it for dear life.

On Unit One, they heard nothing, but a shockwave passed through the ocean, the equivalent of a shrill scream in an empty room that shook them and knocked them off-balance briefly. Though they were too far away to see it, the Abyssal fleet was thrown into disarray - the main group was blocked off by the mines, but the destroyers were caught in the worst of it. Two destroyers took direct hits, flooded, and sank immediately. An errant mine close to the surface took off a leg of a third, forcing her to cling onto an undamaged destroyer and causing them to trail behind. The rest of the destroyers stumbled at the lack of buoyancy and distracted them. Confused, the flanking cruisers slowed down and tried to make contact with the fleet.

This was their moment, and Seiji pounced on it. Unit One rattled as fighters circling above hammered it with gunfire. "Destroyers! Load all torpedoes and launch, targeting the enemy destroyers!" he ordered. "Shoukaku, Zuikaku, refuel your bombers, and direct them to the battleships flanking us. Concentrate on one at a time! Kagerō, load up on antiaircraft ammunition, and defend Unit One!"

"Yes, Admiral!" She replied, limping down to the main magazine chute and grabbing shells. Akashi slammed a panel shut and wiped soot off her forehead, and said to Seiji, "Admiral! Engine's taken a hit. Best speed I can give you without breaking the radiators is three-quarters!"

"Three-quarters it is then," Seiji said. "Set course directly for docks! Coxswain! Radio port, report that we need assistance immediately! We have the target and are taking heavy fire!"

"Yes sir," he grumbled, but reached for the comms. Up on deck, Kagerō bit her lip as she fired away at the bombers circling overhead. In the distance, three plumes of flame, water, and smoke bloomed. The fire was tinged blue - Abyssal ships were being destroyed! Could they make it? A warning buzzer on Seiji's desk screamed in a shrill tone! "Incoming artillery fire!" Akashi bellowed, "Brace!"

"Fire? But from where?" was all Seiji could think to himself, when the first volley hit.

 _BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!_ The deck of Unit One quaked as six shells rained down from above. Four hit, two missed, but the resulting secondary explosion threw them to the deck. Seiji hit something hard and blacked out.

Silence. Cool blackness. There was no pain, no dull thuds of shelling.

Something scratching his cheek, reminding him of his mother when he was younger. A finger?

It trailed down to his neck, encircled - and squeezed.

Seiji's eyes snapped open and reality came rushing back. Gasping for breath. Seiji weakly tugged at the hand around his throat, but it held him in a vise grip. Either he was hallucinating or it was a trick of the light, but blue flames seemed to dance from Rei's one remaining eye as she ground her teeth and glared at him.

" **You shed my sisters' blood, human,** " she spat, " **And for that, you must die!** "

Black dots appeared in his vision. Seiji opened his mouth, struggling for air that wasn't there. His feet dangled uselessly as she lifted him into the air-

 _Phut._

Instantly, the Re-class Battleship let go of him, and Seiji collapsed onto the deck. Kagerō's unconscious form lay prone next to him, her guns jammed open by hastily loaded anti-aircraft rounds. If not her, then who...?

" **Ah...** " Rei gasped in pain, found no release, and fell to her knees. A wooden arrowhead slick with blue-black blood protruded from her chest. Footsteps echoed from the wet stairs - and never before had Seiji been more grateful than to see Shoukaku and Zuikaku hurrying up to deck, each with an arrow in bow and ready to fire.

"Absolutely not," Shoukaku snarled, "So long as I draw breath, you will never lay a hand on any of us!"

The two carriers fired in unison. Closing his eyes, Seiji could block out the sight, but he would never un-hear the death rattle of the Abyssal ship.

.-.

Seiji supposed the Navy would ask him to write his own post-mortem if it ever came to that. With his hands wrapped in bandages and a thick piece of gauze at the side of his head, he had fumbled with the keyboard and couldn't type more than a few words without making a typo. In the end, he had given up and resorted to scratching out on a notepad. The process was slow; the last time he had done this by hand was when he had just graduated as new commissiom five years ago.

The day had been saved by timely reinforcements from the Okinawan naval forces, Unit One had been towed back, and Battle Group Lazarus was rushed to the medical centre. Kagerō's was yet to be submitted because she was having her ankle cast. On his desk lay several submitted reports from the rest of the destroyers. Shoukaku and Zuikaku's reports too, were delayed by their need to clean, refuel, and refit all their planes after battle. They would have their hands full anyway...

Seiji grimaced as he recall his near-death at the hands of the Abyssal ship. It was truly fortunate that Shoukaku's timely actions had saved his life, else it would be him and not Rei that would be lying in a box in pieces, waiting to be examined. He owed her. Still, the report on Unit One was not going to write itself, so Seiji resorted to cooking a believable, if extremely vague account, of how the two carriers had returned in the nick of time. Painfully aware of how it sounded like a teenager's fantastical drabbling, Seiji finished the report with a boldly worded request for more antiaircraft measures and personal commendations for each shipgirl in Lazarus.

A soft knock on the door sounded just as he signed his name on the bottom. "Come in," he called, and the door opened to reveal exactly who he needed to see: Shoukaku and Zuikaku, with identical sheets of paper tied together. Both of them had changed out of their wet and dirty uniforms into vest and slacks. "Admiral! We've come to submit our After Action Reports!" They announced.

"Just leave it on my desk here," Seiji groaned. "That'll be all for today. Thank you girls for your hard work." He stifled a yawn and limped over to the cupboard at the side of the office, found a bottle of juice, and poured himself a glass. The sweet sugary drink was cool to the taste, a throwback to his cadet days. Whispers could be heard from behind his back: "Nah, you... Go on ahead, I'll... Later." Seconds later, the door shut.

"Care for a drink?" Seiji spoke aloud. "It's a coincidence you arrived just as I was about to ask you for some help... Shoukaku."

He grinned as he turned around, but Shoukaku was harder to embarrass than that. Rolling her eyes, she accepted the glass and glanced at his desk. "Are you going to ask me to write reports again, Admiral?"

Seiji chuckled nervously. "It's not that. It's, uh... Well, I just want to say..."

"...I just want to thanks you for saving my life!" he blurted out quickly before he could stop himself. "If not for your timely intervention and swift return, I..."

" _I think I would have died_ ," he tried to say, but he couldn't say it. In the end, he settled for "I\ would have a lot of regrets, I guess..." Shoukaku stared at him, blinking for a moment, and just as Seiji was wondering if she was taking him seriously, she began to giggle lightly.

"Admiral! You don't need to be so serious! I- I was just doing my job, and besides, without you to give orders, we might not have made it out unscathed at all!" she said. Nodding in agreement, Seiji murmured and thought about something else to say.

"Well, don't just stand there, finish your reports! Shoukaku can take care of them later when you're done writing them. Is there anything else you need?" she asked. Bringing Seiji firmly back to earth, he nodded and limped back to his desk. He retrieved his drafted report and said, "Well, now that you mention it, I really can't type with hands like these, so..."

Shoukaku sighed and put her hands on her hips. "Admiral, you should know that I don't like typing at all, you know? This will be the last time I transcribe something for you!" she said, but she had said so too just a week ago. Seiji just grinned and handed her the notepad. "Thank you, Shoukaku. I really... I really appreciate your work."

"...You're welcome."

 **fin.**

 **Hello there! Thank you for reading this side story! This is something extra I wrote while planning _The Five Stories Of Standard Carrier Shoukaku_ and I decided to finish it after the conclusion of the first arc. _The Five Stories_ is an M-rated story for sexual content, but I hope you will give it a read if this interested you!**

 **-Destination**


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